Hot Shots - March 11, 2022
Hot Shots - March 11, 2022
Severin R-B Danieli
Hello all,
Long time no chat! I was lucky enough to escape away to the mountains last week with my family, so I am coming to you relaxed, refreshed and ready to rumble.
Earlier this week, feeling the spring spirit, I decided to start germinating some of my seeds that will soon become a thriving garden (hopefully!). They're still inside the house as we are still having cold snaps every week or so, but it felt good to get my hands dirty again.
It always amazes me that just by putting dry seeds into soil and watering them, food is created! I checked on these seeds maybe 48 hours after I dropped them into some soil, and to my surprise the Easter egg radish and green kale seeds had started to sprout. My (eventual) dream is to have a couple acres where I can try my hand at different vegetables, especially potatoes.
When I was working up at Laughing Crow Organics, we started working relatively early, specifically when it started to get warmer, and the mornings on the farm were my favourite time. The sun touches the top of the surrounding mountains and slowly creeps down into the valley, the birds are chirping and swooping overhead, the plants are covered in fresh sweet dew, and so, the farm begins to wake up.
These may just look like your ordinary apples, but I kid you not, when I saw these in the warehouse this morning, I audibly gasped - jazz apples! This is cause for celebration and a prime spot in the hot shots lineup.
Jazz apples are a lovechild of Braeburn and Royal Gala apples, and are trademarked and controlled by ENZA (formerly known as The New Zealand Apple and Pear Marketing Board). These apples are grown, by permission of ENZA, in both the northern and southern hemisphere, coming from the UK and USA from October to April, and then New Zealand and Chile from March through to September. Here at Disco we have them in 80/88ct from Washington.
Their characteristics are a creamy yellow flesh and dense, juicy texture. This apple was first developed by Allen White in the 1980's who was a part of the Plant and Food Research at the Havelock North site in New Zealand. Commercially it has been available since 2004, and made its way over to France, England, Chile and the USA by 2010.
These apples hold up well in baking, so feel free to bake them into cakes, bread, muffins or hollow them out and stuff them. Their flavour compliments caramel, cinnamon, fennel, pork, pear, ginger and cheeses such as gouda, cheddar and goat.
An old faithful here at Disco are JW Martinez Farms strawberries. Their sweetness is unparalleled, and eclipsed only by the wonderful Estaban Martinez and the strawberries he grows.
Located in Watsonville, California, this 100 acre farm is a family affair that started by selling from a small farm stand on the side of the road.
Strawberries are always a welcome sweet treat, and they do remind me of warm summer days and picking them right off the plant, splashing them with some cold water, and biting into that sun-warmed berry.
Oyster mushrooms.
A very delicate mushroom with unique flavour, oyster mushrooms were actually first cultivated in Germany during WWI as a subsistence measure. These mushrooms are commonly found in the wild, but can be cultivated on straw as well.
This particular mushroom is one of the few known carnivorous mushrooms because its mycelia can kill and digest nematodes, which is the way this mushroom obtains nitrogen.
Oyster mushrooms are a delicacy in Japanese, Korean and Chinese cuisine, and are often served on their own or in soups, stuffed or in stir-fries. A pan fried oyster mushroom with butter, garlic and seasoning is also always a good idea.
Now for something a bit bitter...
Likely the most nutritionally dense green you can eat, even more so than kale, spinach or broccoli, comes dandelion greens! Either green or red, the dandelion as a plant (flower and all) is completely edible. Dandelion greens are high in iron, calcium and vitamin A, C, K and B2, as well as higher in protein and iron than spinach.
How do you eat them you ask? Well, you can sauté or braise with olive oil and lots of garlic, eat them raw and add to a salad, add them to a breakfast with eggs (in place of some spinach), or even make a dandelion green pesto.
A new farm we are stocking here at Disco is Sand Spring Ranch that calls Alberta home.
A family run ranch, near Lac La Biche that has a large organic market garden, a certified organic beef program and a small scale free range pork and chickens program. Sand Spring employs a unique blend or holistic, organic and biodynamic methods.
We have their russets, yellows, reds and purple potatoes, as well as their baby bi-colour bagged potatoes.
One of the owners, Jolene Yackimec, blogs occasionally on their website, and this post back from 2020 was an interesting read about 'Being a Young Farmer', I'll link it here.
We are really excited to be stocking these potatoes, so next time you chat with one of our great sales team members, ask them about these Albertan beauties!
As always, thank you for reading along, next week we will be so close to spring! I can feel it coming!
I was driving to my parents place this past week and saw some pale pink cherry blossoms and it gave me hope and a glimpse into the fast approaching spring weather on this beautiful west coast.
Enjoy your weekend and stay safe!
Big Love,
Severin R-B Danieli